"like a phoenix you rise from the ashes / you pick up the pieces / and the ghosts in the attic"

[larryhammer]

Another look-back poem for Poetry Monday, though in this case looking back to a less-sultry season:


April in Town, Lizette Woodworth Reese

Straight from the east the wind blows sharp with rain,
That just now drove its wild ranks down the street,
And westward rushed into the sunset sweet.
Spouts brawl, boughs drip and cease and drip again,
Bricks gleam; keen saffron glows each window-pane,
And every pool beneath the passing feet.
Innumerable odors fine and fleet
Are blown this way from blossoming lawn and lane.
Wet roofs show black against a tender sky;
The almond bushes in the lean-fenced square,
Beaten to the walks, show all their draggled white.
A troop of laborers comes slowly by;
One bears a daffodil, and seems to bear
A new-lit candle through the fading light.


Reese (1856-1935) was born in what's now a suburb of Baltimore and taught English in Baltimore schools for almost 50 years. She published over a dozen collections of poetry and was named poet laureate of Maryland in 1931.

---L.

Subject quote from "Eric's Song," Vienna Teng.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I like and new to me so thanks for sharing!

[larryhammer]

It was new to me, too. I've been liking other poems by her that I've found -- not a great poet, but one of the many thoroughly competent and enjoyable late 19th/early 20th century poets who didn't make it into the canon as set by the early Modernists, and so unknown unless you stumble across them.

[shewhomust]

Nice one!

[larryhammer]

Innit? That was a pleasant discovery.

[indigocreek]

That's beautiful. What strong images. I'll have to look her up.

[larryhammer]

Do -- she's worth exploring.